A Series of Gifts
by Victoria Hughes
Summary: [Kaitou Kid] In which Kaitou gives Aoko gifts, and gets reactions. Rated PG for Kaitou's ecchi harmlessness.


_The Gifts_

A Short Series by Victoria

Disclaimer:  The characters are the property of Gosho Aoyama.  I am jealous, but not enough to make any profit from his works.

***

**Chapter 1: A Dozen Flowers**

                The day had started off fairly normally.

                "Good morning!"

                At least, about as normally as any day could with someone like Kaitou Kuroba in the classroom.

                Aoko reared back in her chair as the magician standing in front of her practically exploded with tricks, confetti and cards flying everywhere.  The wild display finally ended with Kaitou holding a sizable bouquet of fifteen white roses.  "For you, ojou-san!"

                Intellectually, Aoko knew that Kaitou had hidden the confetti, cards, and roses somewhere in his school uniform, but she was completely stumped as to _where_, exactly.  And they were in perfect condition, too … after a moment of hesitation, she took them, not without a small blush for Kaitou's (seemingly unthinking) gift.  "Thank you," she said, a little surprised.  It was true that occasionally Kaitou busted out with some present for her, but he always managed to do it when she least expected.

                But as she thought it over, she decided that she shouldn't give Kaitou _too_ much credit.  The big baka owed her a lot more, after all, making her mad every day and then laughing at her temper …

                She shouldn't have been surprised, then, when three of the roses suddenly dissolved into a flurry of feathers, turning into doves before her eyes.  "Waugh!"

                "Whoops!" Kaitou exclaimed unrepentantly, his eyes twinkling.  "I meant to give you 12 flowers.  Guess I didn't count too carefully, huh?"  The three doves landed on his shoulders and hand; a flick of his hand sent all three out the open window of the classroom.

                Aoko just sat there for a moment, too startled to speak, before standing up suddenly.  "Don't _do_ that!" she cried, trying to be angrier than she felt.  It was just like him to bury a hidden surprise in an apparently innocent present.  "Can't you stop joking for even a moment?"

                Kaitou put on a pout that would have been perfect if his eyes weren't still laughing.  "But that wouldn't be any _fun_," he said petulantly.

                "Oh, for goodness sakes," she swiped at him irritably with one hand, since she was missing her mop, and he reared back out of her reach.  "At least clean up this me—mess …"  But the cards he had scattered with his initial show were already gone to God-only-knew where, and Kaitou was already vaulting his desk to fall with grace into his seat, whereupon he produced a newspaper out of apparently nowhere and began to read.

                For some reason this just frustrated Aoko further.  How could he be so ridiculously—ridiculously _flippant_!?  "Kaitou!"

                "What?" he didn't look up from his reading, so Aoko grabbed the newspaper impulsively to get his attention.  "Hey!" He gave her an indignant, amused look.  "What was that for?"

                Aoko actually had to think for a moment to come up with an answer; being annoyed with Kaitou was a perpetual state of being, it seemed, and no longer needed constant explanation.  "You give me a present like this and then you act like nothing happened!?"  She presented the bouquet and gave him an accusing look.  "At least say "You're welcome"!

                Kaitou grinned at her.  "You're welcome!" he said, his voice a perfect imitation of her own irate tones.  "And you can keep the newspaper, I suppose."  He pulled a sheet of paper out of his desk, folded it twice, crumpled it in his fingers, and a moment later, he was holding another newspaper.  "Ta-daa!"

                _Ooooh__ …  "_Pay attention to me!" she said hotly.

                "Okay."  To Aoko's surprise, he folded the newspaper and looked up at her.  "You wanted to say something?"

                "Ah … well …" She hadn't expected him to actually _listen_, after all.

                "No?  In that case—" he grinned that infuriating grin again, and started to go back to the newspaper.  "Look, Kaitou Kid got away with another heist last night!  I'll bet your father was pretty mad, haha …" he chuckled – well, actually, it was more of a snicker.

                Aoko saw red for a very brief moment.  "You—you—!" She wanted a mop _so badly_ right then that she settled for her chair.  "Stop making fun of me!"

                "Hey, hey!"  Without putting down the newspaper, Kaitou leapt from his seat as the chair passed through the space he had been in a moment before.  "I'm not making fun of you!  I'm just—"

                "Shut up!" she roared, swinging the chair again.  "Stop jumping around like a rabbit and take your punishment like a man!"

                The class had become so used to this it was almost disturbing.  "Hey, someone get Nakamori-san a mop before she kills someone besides Kuroba-kun," somebody suggested; a moment later, a mop had been retrieved from the room next door and handed to Aoko.  "Here you go, Nakamori-san."

                "Thank you," she said primly, putting down the chair, and swinging the mop at Kaitou instead.        The magician bounced around the room like a rubber ball gone mad, always just out of range of Aoko's weapon.  "Whoops—!"

                The class, for their part, breathed a collective sigh of relief; true, the mop had more range, but it was also lighter, and Aoko had more experience with it and was less likely to hit someone other than Kaitou by accident.

                As luck would have it today, though, Kaitou decided to escape the classroom and bounded down the halls of the school.  Aoko gave chase, never letting up with her makeshift weapon.  "Kaitou, you—get—down—here!" She panted through grit teeth.

                "No!" Kaitou sang merrily, making a show of his acrobatic escape.  "You stop swinging first!"

                _Finally._  It always seemed like their wild 'fights' ended like this, with a demand from Aoko and a call for a truce from Kaitou; in truth, she was more than ready for it.  Chasing Kaitou around was tiring.  She thumped the end of the mop on the ground and glared up at Kaitou, who was still attached to the ceiling.  "Okay, I'm stopping," she said snappily.  "Now get down here so we can get back to class."

                Kaitou complied after only a moment, and Aoko was unhappy to note that Kaitou had neither dropped his newspaper nor seemed winded from the chase.  "As long as I carry the mop."  Almost before she knew it, the mop had migrated from her hands to Kaitou's; he winked at her and she tried not to fume.

                "Mou," she huffed, folding her arms.  "Why do you always make me so mad!?"

                Kaitou sparkled at her, all poise and grace.  "Because you're cute when you're angry!"

                Aoko's world froze in place at those words.

                Did he mean that?  Did Kaitou really just say that she was _cute _(even if there was an annoying disclaimer put on that)?  Wait, why was she getting so worked up over this, anyway, it was just _Kaitou_, the annoying 'friend' she'd had since first grade, the crazy magic-otaku who—who … but …

                He thought she was cute?

                She was startled out of her thoughts by Kaitou flipping up her skirt. "You have purple panties?"

                "ARGH!"  She made a desperate grab for the mop still in Kaitou's hands, but he danced out of the way, practically glowing.  It was just some stupid trick, she should have guessed!  "You obnoxious _monkey!_"

                "Ahahahaha—!"  Kaitou ran back to the classroom, snickering all the way, with Aoko hot on his heels.

*   *   *

_This is my first Kaitou Kid fic, and I hope I did a decent job with the characterizations._

_Next chapter: A paper crane._

_Please let me know what you think with a review!_

_~~Vikki_


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